Golden Turtle

The most prestigious photo contest in Russia is the annual Golden Turtle Awards. This year, the contest drew submissions from over 15,000 photographers in 37 countries — all vying for prizes from the total prize package valued at more than 1 million rubles. The winners from all categories take part in a traveling exhibition throughout Russia and gain attention worldwide.

Our Distributor in Russia, Avras, has supported this contest for several years, providing prizes of Lowepro gear for the winners. This year, they arranged for a special, additional prize to be awarded from Lowepro giving one of the contest finalists the opportunity to be featured in our 2012 Loweprofessionals Brochure. We are delighted to give you a sneak peek at the winning image, taken by Dmitri Pavlov. A young biologist and photo enthusiast from Borok, a small town on the shore of the Rybinsk Reservoir, his goal is to use his photography to show what an amazing, and beautiful, world we live in.

Entitled A Small Cow in a Forest of Giant Streetlights, it captures a microscopic insect called a ‘springtail’ amid a forest of equally tiny mushrooms found on a rotting log in Upper Volga. It’s a bit of whimsy from an unseen world in a forest far away that shows beauty in what we might otherwise dismiss as just death and decay. The springtail itself is only 1-2 mm long but nevertheless an important part of our ecosystem.

Congratulations, Dmitri — we look forward to telling your story in the next edition of our Loweprofessionals brochure!

Sam is the PR and Photographer Relations Manager for Lowepro’s Worldwide Marketing team.